


Crisis of Earth-2

by TwinTerrors



Series: Sometimes, You Just Need to Flip Things Around [3]
Category: DCU (Comics), Earth 2 (Comics), Supergirl (Comics), Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types, The Flash (Comics), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, presumed destruction of a planet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 21:28:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17129054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinTerrors/pseuds/TwinTerrors
Summary: Wally West’s world is ending. When his aunt, the Flash, sends him to the Hall of Justice and instructs him to activate the failsafe, he knows his life is about to change forever. After all, there are infinite other worlds. He just has to hope he ends up on one that's safe.





	1. The End

Wally had no idea what had happened.

But he knew it had to be bad.

The sky was turning red and filling with smoke as entire cities burned. He had seen members of the Society falling from the sky, dead before they hit the ground. But he didn’t know what was causing all this. After all, no one ever told him anything. Especially not the adults.

They wouldn’t even let him help, only telling him to hide in the Hall, with the other kids. But when he got there, only Jon and little Karen were there. And no one else had made contact in several hours.

Karen had spent the first half of that crying. She was technically, like, four, even if she was Kryptonian, so this was pretty normal behavior for her.

Not that it was helping Wally’s nerves any. Or Jon’s from the look on his face as he held his...what were they? Cousins?

Didn’t matter, Wally was pretty sure they lived together, in the same house as Superman, even.

Of course, that was around when he got the message from his aunt.

_Start the failsafe._

He gulped. His powers still weren’t consistent, and even his aunt, the Flash, struggled to use the Treadmill, muchless with passengers in tow. But he had been trained for this, he knew he could do it.

He was just scared.

He entered the special passcode into the hidden keypad in the wall behind the founders’ statues, ushering Jon and Karen in first. Ignoring the others, Wally pulled the dust cover off his goal.

The Cosmic Treadmill.

His aunt had made him memorize the start-up procedure and the correct multiversal coordinates he would need to make the jump, but they had only pantomimed executing them. He wasn’t prepared for how hard it was to turn the lever to turn on the power.

“What are you doing?” Jon asked from behind him. Apparently, he had put down Karen at some point, and was now hovering behind Wally.

“Um,” he mumbled, unsure how much he should be sharing with his friend.

“This is the failsafe, isn’t it?” he whispered. Wally shouldn’t have forgotten: even if Jon looks even younger than him, he’s the son of Superman. There’s not a lot he doesn’t at least hear about.

“Um, I can’t turn the-”

“Got it,” Jon said, stepping in and taking the handle from Wally. It turned easily in his small, pale hands.

“Thanks,” Wally said.

“Don’t mention it,” Jon said, looking uncomfortable. “Are we...are we really leaving?”

Wally paused. “I don’t know. I haven’t gotten final confirmation yet.”

“Okay,” Jon paused. “Is anyone else coming?”

“I don’t know,” Wally shrugged. “That wasn’t part of the protocol I had to memorize. My...the Flash made it sound like it would depend.”

“Depend on what?”

 _On who made it that long_ , Wally thought, but just shrugged.

Luckily, Jon didn’t pick up on Wally’s somber mood, and went to pick up Karen again.

“No!” she yelled, fighting him. “Want Helena!”

“Helena had school today, she couldn’t babysit us,” Jon explained calmly.

This did nothing to comfort the toddler. In fact, it launched a meltdown.

Wally winced as he continued booting up the treadmill. Most people thought that a four year old’s tantrum was the most grating sound possible. Wally thought that this was because most people hadn’t heard a four year old Kryptonian’s tantrum before.

Luckily, it didn’t take Jon too long to calm her down again. By that time, the treadmill was powered up and ready to run at less than a moment’s notice. Now, all they could do was wait for word from the Society, and hope this would turn out to be an unnecessary precaution.

That hope proved to be in vain less than half an hour later, when a red blur streaked into the room with them and coughed blood all over the floor.

“Aunt-” Wally caught himself only a second too late. “Flash!”

“It’s okay Wally,” his aunt pulled her cowl back and reached a hand out to him. “It doesn’t really matter anymore.”

She paused to cough some more, spraying blood all over the floor as she clutched her free hand to her stomach.

“You’re hurt,” he whispered.

“You need to take them and go, Wally,” she said, ignoring him.

“What about the others? Helena, Di, Garth-?”

“There’s no time to wait for them, and if they haven’t made it by now, chances are they aren’t coming.”

“But-”

“No,” she said, grabbing him and pulling him close for a hug. “You need to get out of here. We haven’t found a way to stop this, Wally. I’m sorry. I love you.”

“Then come with us,” he begged.

“I have to stay,” she shook her head. “I have to keep fighting. If there’s any chance, I have to keep fighting. And if we survive, we’ll come for you. I promise. I love you, Wally.”

“I love you too, Aunt Iris,” he whispered, holding back his tears.

And then she was gone.

He took a deep breath. Held it. Released it. Then turned to face Jon and Karen.

“Time to go,” he said, stepping onto the treadmill.

“Uh, question,” asked Jon, holding a suspiciously-quiet-and-still Karen again. “How are we coming with you?”

“With this,” Wally said, gesturing with the harness he pulled from the compartment in the wall next to the treadmill. “Float and grab onto the handle once I put it on, and we’ll be on our way.”

“Um,” Jon said, dubiously eyeing what probably looked to him like a leather strap., but was actually padded carbon fiber, “if you say so.”

With that, Wally started the treadmill and began. He accelerated, gradually at first as he ran the last minute tests on the equipment and ensured that Jon was properly gripping the harness, then as hard as he could. Faster and faster, as the room started to blur around them, obscured by the crackling lightning and strange light artifacts as he approached the speed of light. Then, with a boom, he broke the source wall.

And all was light.


	2. The Beginning

Kara was sipping her coffee during her monthly brunch with Kal when she heard it: a sound she had only heard once before, but would recognize to the end of her days.

The sound of a portal to another Earth opening.

“Kal, stay here,” she said, slamming her mug back onto the wicker table at whatever cafe Kal had chosen with what was probably a bit too much force. Then, too fast for the human eye to perceive, she made a dash for the nearest bathroom. Less than a second later, she was in the air, cape fluttering behind her as she honed in on the rapidly fading noise.

Another couple of seconds, and she was hovering over the ground in a field in New England. She hadn’t been paying too much attention, but she was pretty sure they weren’t far from a decently-sized coastal city; if these were invaders, she would have been worried about keeping the fight away from the population center.

But as it was, she was more worried about minimizing harm to the arrivals: three children, the oldest not even thirteen years old, the youngest probably closer to four. _At least in human years_ , Kara mentally amended, because the second thing she noticed was that two of them, the middle and the youngest, were _Kryptonian_.

“How,” she whispered, staring at pair of them. It had been so long since she had seen any others, aside from Kal, she had given up hope of finding any other survivors.

But then she remembered: these children were not from this reality. Even if they were from Krypton, they were not from _her_ Krypton.

“What’s going on?”

Kara nearly jumped out of her skin.

“KAL,” she hissed, whirling around and smacking him. He must have snuck after her while she was distracted by the children.

Unfortunately, that sharp motion seemed to set off the smallest child, who started shrieking out sobs.

“Shh, it’s okay,” the middle child, who was holding the toddler and still hovering several feet above the ground. “It’s okay, Karen, we’re safe.”

“Um, excuse me miss,” the one in front asked. Unlike the others, who were wearing what looked like jeans and t-shirts, this kid was wearing a sleek yellow suit of some kind of polymer, with a prominent red lightning bolt on the chest and a partial cowl around his face and the sides of his head. “Are you Supergirl?”

“I am. Who are you?”

“I’m Ki-Wally. These are my friends, Jon and Karen. We need your help.”

“What do you need? Does it have anything to do with how you came through a portal from another Earth?”

Kal gasped behind her, but she couldn’t pay him any attention right now. He would just have to prove he was a grown-up, like he kept protesting whenever she questioned his decision to wear his underwear on the outside of his tights.

“How did you know about that?” the child holding Karen, Jon apparently, asked suspiciously.

“Thank you for confirming, and how I know isn’t important. Why are you here?”

Wally took a deep breath. They all looked pretty shaken up, now that Kara thought about it. Maybe that was part of why they were here?

“Our world was ending,” Wally’s words broke in before Kara’s speculation could go any further. “Our parents had set up a-a failsafe protocol, if you will. A way to get us to safety if the worst came to pass.”

“An escape pod,” Kal supplied quitely. Kara turned to glare at him but stopped when she saw his expression.

 _Oh God he’s right_ , she realized, glancing back at the children. Whatever was happening to their world was so bad that they were sent away by their own parents.

Just like we were.

“Okay,” she started slowly, coming to a couple of decisions. “You already know who I am, but you can call me Kara. And this is my cousin Kal, who goes by Superman.”

“Nuh-uh!” Karen shouted, taking a sudden interest in something that was not screaming or escaping Jon’s hold. “Our daddy’s Superman, and you’re not our daddy!”

“Um,” Kal managed, looking particularly stunned.

“Right, sure,” Kara tried to regain control of the situation. “Why don’t we take this somewhere more private so we can actually talk about it?”

“Like where?” Wally asked, a little suspicious.

“How about the Fortress?”

Kara whipped her head around to stare down Kal again. He didn’t even look ashamed, smirking right back at her. Where had she gone wrong with him? Why did he have to volunteer important secrets every time he opened his mouth?

“Ooooh! Yes!” Jon spoke up, eyes bright. “Let’s go!”

And before Kara could explain that maybe that wasn’t the best place to go, the boy had shot off into the sky. Thankfully, he did seem to be heading in the right direction, but he had left Wally behind.

“Not again,” the boy groaned, running a hand over his exposed short hair.

 

“Okay then,” Kara started, looking up from her station. “You’re story checks out, the bioscans confirm that Jon is Kal’s son, and that Karen is a clone of me.”

“I told you,” Jon grumbled. He hadn’t even looked back over from where he was poking the statues at the entrance.

“So now, we can focus on what is going to happen to you guys,” Kara continued.

That got the kids attention.

“What do you mean, what’s going to happen to us?” Wally asked suspiciously.

“We mean,” Kal jumped in, sensing the boy was getting ready to bolt, “that you all need somewhere to live.”

“Oh, right,” Wally said, surprised.

“Luckily, it looks like there is a version of you aunt living in Keystone. I can take you there and help explain the situation to her, maybe she could take you in?” Kara offered.

“Yeah,” Wally said quietly. “I think I’d like that.”

“And as for you two,” Kara turned to Jon and Karen, “I can’t think of anywhere two Kryptonian youngsters could go but with me.” She smiled wryly at Kal. “Guess I’m doomed to be a single mom forever, huh?”

“Why couldn’t they live with me?” Kal asked, confused.

“Because Kal, you mostly forget that humans actually need to eat, and you are constantly ducking out of work,” Kara sighed. “No, I can take care of them, don’t worry.

“Anyway,” she refocused on Wally, “I think we should go ahead and approach your aunt. How about I race you to Keystone?”

“Oh, you’re on!” Wally returned her grin, and immediately turned and zoomed south.

 

When her doorbell rang, Iris West sighed and gave up on finishing her article before lunch. She closed her laptop and headed down the stairs, wondering who was at her door. She didn’t expect any packages, and her dad and her brother would have called ahead if they were coming to visit. A glance through the peephole had her gasping and ripping the door open.

“Supergirl!” she gaped at the woman hovering on her front step. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Hello Iris West,” Supergirl smiled at her. “If we could come inside, there is actually something we should discuss.”

“Oh, um, sure,” Iris pulled the door open wider, finally noticing that Supergirl was not alone. The young man standing on the ground beside her was wearing bright yellow, which made her seriously question how she had failed to see him, but she supposed she was just that dazzled by the larger-than-life alien woman. She would need to work on that in the future.

 _Funny_ , she thought, noting the familiar red-and-yellow lightning insignia. _That looks like the Flash’s symbol, but this boy is definitely not the Flash. Not likely a son either, he's too old for that based on how young the Flash seems._

“So,” Iris said as she and her guests settled into her couch, “what was it you wanted to talk about?”

“Straight to the point. Always a good trait in a reporter. But first, I think we should make an introduction,” Supergirl replied, gesturing to the boy next to her.

“Hi Au-, um, Ms. West,” he began. She noticed that he was staring intently at her face. But it wasn’t creepy, just like he was relieved to see her. “I’m Kid Flash, but my name is, um, Wally West.”

“West you say?” Iris mentally traced back her family tree, remembering a story about a cousin named Wallace disappearing several generations back with no real explanation, but no other Wallaces. Certainly none that could be the boy in front of her. “Any relation?”

“Um, kinda,” he said, rubbing his exposed hair. “But also kinda not?”

“Kinda but kinda not?” she parroted, raising her eyebrow.

“What he means,” Supergirl broke in, “is that he is from a different universe. And that on his Earth, he was your nephew.”

“Ah,” Iris paused, thinking that through. “Daniel’s son then?” She paused again, picking up on one other thing in that statement. “You say ‘was.’”

“Yes. Unfortunately, his Earth was under attack, and they saw fit to activate a failsafe of some sort. One that launched your nephew to this world to keep him safe.”

“And his world? What happened to it?”

“Unfortunately, no. Their failsafe was structured in such a way that they could send their children out, and come to retrieve them if the danger had passed, but that the children could not come back on their own. And since we are unable to tell which of the many universes out there Wally came from without going to each one individually, which would take decades at best, he will be staying with us for the foreseeable future.”

“One more question.” It was one Iris suspected she already knew the answer to, but she didn’t want to assume. “Where is he going to live now, and does that happen to have anything to do with why you came to me?”

“Sharp as ever,” Supergirl smirked. “Yes, it does. He needs a place to stay, somewhere familiar and safe. I can think of no place better than with you.”

Iris was stunned, even having known it was coming. Not to mention all the compliments Supergirl was giving her. But, looking at the boy and remembering her friend’s face as he talked about having nowhere to go when his mom died...she already knew what her answer was going to be.

“Of course, I will be able to help with the paperwork, make things official. And it will obviously need to be a secret, both that he is from another universe and that he is Kid Flash. But if you agree-”

“I’ll do it.”

“Good,” Supergirl smiled again.

Her new nephew was starting to smile too. She knew that even if this wasn’t in her plans, she could make it work. He was school aged, and she worked from home except when she had interviews or investigating to do, and she still had a guest room set up from when she had fostered a witness for a couple of weeks while his case got sorted out.

The powers thing was also going to be an issue. She had no idea how to raise a speedster. She might have to ask the Flash some probing questions, but she would need a reason to do so that wouldn’t tip him off. Hm, something else to work on.

“Now, what all did you bring with you? Any other clothes?” At his sudden look of panic she mentally questioned whether his earth used the same sizing system as her own before deciding they would sort that out later.

“I think we have our work cut out for us,” Supergirl smirked. “I’ll be back when the paperwork is ready to fill out, I figure we can work out the story together that way. Otherwise, I will leave the two of you to it.”

Once she had whisked herself out the door, Iris turned her full attention back to the near silent child still sitting on her couch, wearing what was apparently the full extent of his belongings.

This kid was going to need so much therapy. But first.

“You can call me Aunt Iris I guess,” she nodded, holding out her hand to help him up. “Let’s see about ordering you some clothes.”


End file.
